Lingshu · The Fifty Circuits

The text

The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear of the fifty circuits. How is it? Qi Bo replied: Heaven's circuit is twenty-eight lodges; each lodge is thirty-six parts. When the person's qi travels one circuit, it is one thousand and eight parts. The sun travels the twenty-eight lodges. The person's channels, above and below, left and right, front and back, are twenty-eight vessels; they circle the body sixteen zhang two chi, answering to the twenty-eight lodges. The dripping water falls one hundred marks, to divide day and night. Thus at one exhalation the vessel moves twice, and qi travels three cun; at one inhalation the vessel also moves twice, and qi travels three cun. A completed breath, exhalation and inhalation settled, and qi travels six cun. In ten breaths qi travels six chi, and the sun travels two parts. In two hundred seventy breaths, qi travels sixteen zhang two chi; qi communicates through the center and completes one circuit of the body; the water falls two marks; the sun travels twenty-five parts. In five hundred forty breaths, qi travels two circuits of the body; the water falls four marks; the sun travels forty parts. In two thousand seven hundred breaths, qi travels ten circuits of the body; the water falls twenty marks; the sun travels five lodges and twenty parts. In thirteen thousand five hundred breaths, qi makes fifty circuits of the body; the water falls one hundred marks; the sun travels the twenty-eight lodges; the dripping water is exhausted and the vessels have completed their course. What is called communicating: they travel together as one count. Thus when the fifty circuits are complete, one may exhaust the years of heaven and earth. In all, the travel is eight hundred ten zhang.

The line

Qi Bo replied: Heaven's circuit is twenty-eight lodges; each lodge is thirty-six parts. When the person's qi travels one circuit, it is one thousand and eight parts. The sun travels the twenty-eight lodges. The person's channels, above and below, left and right, front and back, are twenty-eight vessels; they circle the body sixteen zhang two chi, answering to the twenty-eight lodges.

The note

The person's qi circles the body fifty times in a day and a night. A circuit is a ring. The fifty circuits lay heaven's circuit and the person's circuit on the same map.